1. Also referred to as Sound Technician, Recordist, or Dialogue Recording Mixer throughout the text. The use of the word "Mixer" highlights the fact that a major part of the job requires level balancing and mixing on the fly. This is different from ADR recording, as will be explained further on.
2. The equipment needed to prepare and use traditional rythmo tape costs upwards of $30 000, not to mention the personnel needed to prepare and run it, and both of those are scarcely available. Thankfully, there exist a number of software solutions, which will be discussed in the section on Dubbing Software.
3. Some programs aid the detection process with speech-to-text transcription tools, but at the present moment such tools are still the process of being perfected.
4. Ibid.
5. Please refer to Rythmo Band Notation in the Glossary.
6. Dubbing benefits from an interesting perceptual phenomenon known as the McGurk effect. The phenomenon involves an interaction between hearing and vision in speech perception, and demonstrates the ease with which our senses can be fooled into confusing certain phonemes with others, when image and sound are in sync.
7. Actor’s and technician’s union rules dictate the permissible blocks of time for which a production is allowed to book talent. These are different for every geographical region. It is important to be aware of such details because they will affect the scheduling.
8. It is assumed that the dubbing actors are familiar with the rythmo band system and have had training. It is not an easy system to learn quickly, and so for simpler dialogue replacement tasks it may be better to use an alternative dubbing method.
9. Please note that these conventions are not universal. They are relevant in current dubbing productions in Québec, but things are different in countries where actors are paid by the hour rather than by the line. The idea is to be aware of the relationship between the number of lines of dialogue and the schedule, in order to budget your time well. For an exact definition of a line, please refer to the Glossary.
10. In some studios the dialogue mixer (recordist) is in the same room as the actors, and monitors through headphones. With practice this will work, though it is far from an ideal setup.
11. A variation is to bus one mic to two different tracks, but reduce the input to one of them. This however will not save you from distortion at the mic’s diaphragm.
12. A major factor in the acoustics of a room is the screen. A large projection screen must be an acoustic screen that allows sound to pass through, otherwise reflections from it will be quite present. If a TV screen is used (placed closer to the actors), the mic must be positioned such that the diaphragm is not parallel to the screen.
13. To protect my hearing, I will often turn things down by 12dB or more if I have to listen carefully for extended periods of time.
14. “Doing it by ear” is a philosophy that should be applied only at the mixing stage.
15. Good actors and directors understand, that it is not necessary to physically feel the pain and anguish of the character when screaming. Very often, however, the opposite happens, and the resulting scream will be distorted and unclean because of the pressure at the actor’s vocal cords. Beware that the actors and director, who sometimes may have little knowledge about audio recording, will judge you on how well you handle screams and whispers.
16. Accents should be handled carefully: with films dubbed in French, a Jamaican English accent can be successfully replaced with Antillean French. However, in Germany, Jamaican English is sometimes dubbed with a Bavarian German accent (Danan). This solves the problem of distinguishing regional accents, but introduces a considerable cultural mis-interpretation.